To Rise and Return
by Kuyugen
Summary: Naruto fought for everything in his life. Now crowned the leader of Fire Country, he returns to his home village to reminisce on the hatred left there- but he didn't realize that there had been one who loved him. NaruHina, long oneshot. Bashing elements.


**To Rise and Return**

_Summary_-

Naruto had to fight for everything in his life. Now crowned the leader of the Fire Country, he returns once more to his home village to reminisce on the hatred left there... but he didn't realize that there was one who loved him. NaruHina, longish oneshot.

_Advise_ is, usual, 'do not read. Crappy story.'- this one really sucks. More than usual, I mean.

Disclaimer: Don't own. Glad I don't, because I'd be ashamed to own the crap that Naruto has become. Kishi pulled a JKR. Possibly vice versa. Tch.

* * *

The dawn's light cast shimmering shadows on the moist dirt, and an autumn breeze played with blonde hair as a man walked out of a shed, having changed his clothes to something rather less conspicuous, although he still wore a white robe with crimson patterns on it on top of them.

He was hoping to make a good getaway. He checked the sun, mentally calculating the angle of the shadows it flung on the ground. Barely any time left, about this time some troublesome servant or another would be bringing him breakfast…

They didn't even make good ramen. And he really, really _missed_ it.

Part of the reason he was taking a day off, really.

He strode across the lawn, endeavoring to look like part of the background. The royal patterns of scarlet billowed behind him as he progressed…. Naruto grimaced, privately aware of how badly he was failing at being inconspicuous.

His nostrils flared, and hopelessly he tried to speed up a bit without alerting the guards, who had the latest machines that caught any ninja-speed movement within the grounds, just in case a shinobi tried to assassinate someone inside-

He was only a few feet from the wall when he stopped, sighing in annoyance. He turned around, just in time to see a servant running up to him. "Milord! Are you leaving somewhere?"

Naruto turned an ice cold glare onto him. "If I am?" he said quietly.

The servant gulped. "May I ask-" he said tentatively, "-how long milord will be gone?"

Naruto thought about that. "No more than two days." he said. "I expect Yugito-san can take care of the paperwork until I come back."

"I see, milord." the servant said. "And may I dare inquire where milord will be going?"

Naruto looked down distastefully at the bowing man. "Stand up straight." he said testily. "I can't stand people who grovel."

The servant stood up straight, but kept his gaze steadily trained on the ground.

"I will be visiting some old friends." Naruto said, pausing at the last word. A grim smile stretched his face and the scar that ran across the side of his face to his chin.

"Will milord like some protection-?"

"I think I shall be alright." Naruto said dismissively. "The place is not far. And are you saying you doubt my abilities to defend myself?"

"No, milord." the negative response was the strongest the servant had said so far. His voice rang with utter belief. He knew, as everyone did, the things that Lord Naruto was capable of. The things he could do, would do, and had done to claw his way up to the throne from the status of a orphaned gutter child. "But it is undignified for a king to-"

"Pah." Naruto said, waving his hand. "I am no royalty. Everyone knows that. I am merely here because no one was strong enough to challenge me. Blood had nothing to do with it."

A strange expression flickered over the scarred face.

"I am leaving." Naruto said.

"I wish your safe return, milord." the servant said, bowing.

Naruto nodded, and set off. The truth was, he reflected, he _was_ royalty. Extremely blue-blooded, to tell the truth. The offspring of the princess of the destroyed Whirlpool kingdom and the fourth Lord of the Fire Country. If people had known that, he would have ascended to the throne with much less hassle...

But then, telling that would have given people the last impression Naruto wanted to have.

* * *

Naruto ditched his royal robes somewhere in the forest. Underneath, he wore plain black trousers, a ragged grayish shirt underneath his orange vest. It had faded into a sort of murky light brown, but that was alright.

As he walked, he mused... on his path to power. It hadn't been an easy path. Nothing had come easily to him. He'd fought for everything.

He'd started off in the place he was returning to, as an orphan. The curse mark on his stomach had led the superstitious villagers to believe that he was a demon. And, Naruto reflected, he _was_ a demon. He had willingly become one, and did not regret it.

His childhood had not been easy, growing up in a place where he was feared and hated. He had learned that fear and hate, had become it. It was what fueled him, all these years. Fear, at first. Fear of being killed. But then he'd learned how to fight...

It took him only a few days to realize he had been gifted with the chakra. It took him a few weeks to figure out how to use it. It took him a few months to find a master who would teach him, intrigued by his incipient power. It took him around three years to learn everything the man would teach him.

He had been sixteen. And then, he'd challenged his mentor Orochimaru to a duel. And had killed him.

And had taken over Oto.

Oto was a small place, full of weak chakra-users, and a few really good ones. It had taken him a while to make them think of him as their leader- but when they had, Naruto had called off the war- Wind and Sound versus Fire. He had turned on Wind, made a treaty with Fire. With good strategy and excellent leadership, he'd turned the tide of the war... to nothing. There was no war anymore. Wind was under Naruto's control, and Fire knew that the war would start all over again if they didn't listen to him.

Naruto's next move... was to release his hold on Wind, and relinquish his claim to Oto. Resign as their Lord.

"I just want peace," he said. "I just wanted the war to stop."

Bang. Insta-popularity.

He'd gone to Fire Country. Set up a school for chakra-users. But he couldn't escape attention, which was what he'd been aiming for...

And then; war with Ame.

Naruto, who'd by then had kept refusing to join the Fire military, had went on refusing, and had taken his students- by then competent shinobi- and had _slaughtered_ Ame. Ame was a small country but full of powerful shinobi, worthy of facing Fire Country and possibly even winning. But Naruto...

Naruto had been trained by the Sannin Orochimaru. Naruto had the mind of a military genius. Naruto had iron-hard determination. Naruto had a demon on his side.

Only two of Naruto's students died that day.

After that, rapid promotion.

And, of course, there were the standard assassination attempts from nobles who didn't like him, people who tried to marry their daughters off to him, sabotage...

Naruto did it right back. Only better.

And then, of course, the third Lord of Fire Country had died. Suna had invaded again. With external pressure and internal strife, and not even quite recovered from the last two wars, the Fire Country's stability tilted...

Nobles fought for the place of Lord Hokage...

Naruto didn't even need to arrange a coup. The people did it for him. They _demanded _he become Lord.

Naruto, with the showings of extreme reluctance, took power.

It wasn't even that long ago, the twenty two year old Lord thought with amusement. Suna lost heart when he ascended to the throne, He'd won easily, with little losses on his side. It cemented his place further, and there was a protest from the people when he tried to resign. How, they had demanded, do you expect us to carve the face of a Lord who reigned for barely two months into the Hokage Monument?

By that time, even the nobles supported him, the gutter boy turned Lord. Mainly because he could ruin them if he wanted. The people loved him, enemies feared him, and the nobles had no choice but to go along with it.

Fire Country was prospering. And in the last few months, a small urge had gripped his heart. The root of his old hatred and fear. It didn't drive him now, but everything that did, rooted from it.

Konoha. A place he had once loved, but had grown to hate, because it had hated him. The beginning of his thorny path to power. A place where he learned the things that had enabled him to rise. Hatred. Determination to prove himself.

When he had left the place, ten years ago, he had vowed to grow powerful. The most powerful of them all. To return. To boast of what he had become and what they were now, before killing them all, one by one, until their blood painted the walls and fed the weeds. And to burn the whole place. And to laugh.

He had grown powerful. Possibly the most powerful in the continent. And he was returning.

But... to destroy it?

He had his peace-loving reputation to think of, after all.

But he had several people to visit. He didn't think that he would kill them. A few of them had been stupid children when they'd done it. Hell, _he'd_ been a stupid child. Always smiling, thinking it was a shield.

The true protection, he had learned when he left the village, was to kill the other guy before he could kill you.

Smiling didn't work. Holding a knife to their throat did.

Anyway, he told himself, killing them now would be petty. Why am I going, anyway?

All his life, he knew what he was going to do. Become powerful. Become the best. And now he was at the top, he realized that his goals had been made when he was a ten-year old, and he had no reason to follow up with the stupid ideas he'd had then. Of course, he would quite enjoy killing the people, but...

He was going because he wanted closure. He wouldn't destroy it. He would just... go there, as Uzumaki Naruto, runaway fool, not Lord Naruto, powerful Hokage. He would look around. And put it behind him.

Yeah.

It took him little time to reach Konoha. It was quite a distance from the capital, but not _that_ far, especially for a shinobi. Naruto reached the place in an hour, around noon.

It was just as he remembered it.

* * *

He walked down the streets. He saw posters with his face on it on walls, proclaiming the new Hokage, Lord Naruto. Naruto wasn't a common name, but it had been a long time and he looked nothing like himself ten years ago. The poster had omitted his whisker marks, now extremely faint.

He stopped to stare at it. It was not very well printed, and was in black and white. He looked young and businesslike and rather more handsome than real life. His eyes, though, the artist had captured them perfectly. The way his eyebrows drew together slightly, their arch... it was the exact expression he saw in the mirror every day when he woke up and told himself that there was still a long way to go. The unyielding, cold expression that came over his face when he sobered up and remembered what life was like again.

Hmm. Something missing, though...

Naruto unclipped his pen from his dark trousers, a sleek, silver thing that was incongruous with his whole appearance. He place the tip against his picture and started to draw an elaborate mustache and huge round glasses.

After a few seconds of scribbling, he stepped back and smiled darkly. Vandalizing himself was something new.

He walked away.

Someone grabbed his arm.

"You shouldn't do that to the Hokage." a small voice came from somewhere below. "My mam says that he's the best thing that happened to us in a century and I should always respect him."

"Should I." Naruto drawled, turning around to face the kid. She was somewhat cute, with brown hair in pigtails and an earnest expression on her face. "And what's so good about him?"

The girl looked up into his eyes solemnly. Naruto almost laughed- no one had dared looked into his eyes in quite a time. "'cos he won the wars and saved the people. Iruka-sensei said so."

Naruto's eyebrows rose. "Iruka?" he said, giving a harsh laugh. "Old Scarface?"

"Uh-huh." the girl said, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "D'you know him? 'cos he's really nice. Are you an old student?"

Naruto's face hardened. "I guess you could say so." he said, chuckling grimly. "Never liked him much, though. So, old Iruka's spouting that old stuff about the Hokage, eh? He always did go on and on about the nation's leaders. Respected them genuinely, I guess. The fool."

The girl looked obstinate. "Hokage-sama is a good man." she said, scowling. "You shouldn't say he's a fool."

"I said _Iruka_ was a fool, not me." Naruto said. "How old are you, anyway? Three?"

"I'm five." the girl said, holding out five fingers. "And mam says you shouldn't lie. You're not the Hokage, he's better looking."

Naruto laughed, at that. He collapsed onto the pavement and laughed loudly. The few people who were out in this time of the morning, but those who were glared at him. Naruto could hear them think, 'that hooligan'. Konoha was the same, after all.

It was almost refreshing, actually. People bowed and scraped to him in his palace, but here... he was just another commoner with awful clothes.

"Yes, he is, isn't he." Naruto said, with genuine mirth. "Haha. Well, no Hokage would be Hokage if the artists did the job right. Teehee."

He wiped away the tears in the corner of his eyes. "Does Iruka-san's classes still start at eight?"

"Eight thirty." the girl said solemnly. "When did you learn from him?"

"Around ten years ago, I should say." Naruto said casually. "Ask him sometime about the demon brat Uzumaki."

"I will. Bye-bye, Uzumaki-san." the girl said. "Mam's calling for me."

She skipped away. Naruto stared at her back, smiling vaguely. She wasn't a bad brat, he decided. Much better than all those stuck-up noble children he saw all the time at the palace.

Speaking of stuck-up noble children... Naruto wondered how Uchiha Sasuke was getting along, that asshole...

"Excuse me." he drawled to a passerby in an accent that was vaguely Northern. "Can I ask where Uchiha Sasuke-teme lives?"

"Obviously you haven't been here recently." the man snapped. "It's _Lord_ Uchiha now. He's the leader of the village and the head of his noble clan, so watch your mouth with his name."

Naruto's upper lip curled a little. "Indeed." he said, with a flourishing bow. "I apologize. I used to know _Lord_ Uchiha when he was a young lad..." he laughed. "How times have changed. Him, a village leader and me..."

He laughed again, and strolled off, leaving the man to mutter about hobos.

It would have hurt him, ten years ago. But now, Naruto felt confident with himself. He was better than them. It was just a fact. They knew nothing about him. They never had.

Part of him relaxed. It had been coiled and tense for almost all of his life until now.

"So, Sasuke-teme is the _shutaru_ (mayor) of the village." he mused. "Well, Konoha isn't a small place, I guess it's an accomplishment to him... ah, petty childhood fights, petty childhood bullies... I should all let it go, eh?" A smile spread across his face. "Hmm... But..."

He wandered to the building at the center of the village, the mayor's office, of sorts. The door was unlocked, the lights were lit. Naruto wandered in. There was a snoozing guard with barely genin-level chakra, Naruto passed him with disdain.

There were a few people inside. They didn't notice Naruto as he passed- he sort of blended into the background, despite his long, shaggy blonde hair and ragged appearance. It was a sort of genjutsu, but all Naruto had done was make sure they didn't see what they didn't want to see. It was so easy to take the level of self-delusion people always lived in a few steps further.

"Uchiha.

Sasuke." he said, upon reading the inscription on the door on the top floor. He tested the doorknob, gently. "Hmm. I thought not."

He extended his senses, and focused inside the room.

A jounin-level chakra signature, but absolutely no match for him. How times had changed, indeed.

He pushed the door. It swung open, the locks broken. Naruto stepped in, smiling. "Nice place you have here." he sighed. "Silks from Suna? How extravagant. I see you still like black, Sasuke."

He found a kunai pressed against his throat. "Who are you?" Sasuke hissed into his ear. "I should warn you, I've already dealt with twenty seven assassination attempts since my promotion to-"

"Saa." Naruto said, smiling. He knew Sasuke could feel his relaxed pulse through the kunai. "Assassinations? I've dealt with hundreds, my dear friend. Three hundred something, the last count..."

"Who _are_ you?" Sasuke sounded testy. "I am an elite jounin-"

"Shutaru-sama." Naruto said sarcastically. "You are really a fool. An elite jounin? Don't make me laugh. What's your ranking in the Bingo Book? A?"

"_High_ A. And I am afraid I am bored of your presence."

The kunai sliced. Blood sprayed.

Sasuke stared at his cut hand. He'd cut his own hand. He'd never even seen him move!-

"And here I was, hoping to avoid petty bickering." Naruto remarked, bouncing a bit on Sasuke's sofa.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "Who are you!" he exploded, drawing several more kunai from nowhere.

"Really, Sasuke... I'm dobe." Naruto said, placing his feet on the antique mahogany table in front of him. "Dead-last. Remember? Around ten years ago. I ran away. Uzumaki."

A lip curled. "I don't remember commoners."

He was lying.

"Ah, but you do remember me, Sasuke." Naruto sighed. "Petty bullies like you never forget their first mark..."

"Why have you returned?" Sasuke roared, mad with rage. "To kill me? For something like that? So petty, dobe! You'll always be the same! I remember you when you were young, the idiot, the class clown, always boasting about becoming Hokage, something or another! And now, you're still nothing! Maybe you've learned a few tricks, but you're nothing more than a bandit, not clever enough to use your skills for more than survival. And I-"

Sasuke calmed down again. He smirked. "And I..."

"Nothing but a shutaru." Naruto said, waving a hand dismissively. "Sasuke, Sasuke... you're still the same, you know. Always trapped in yourself. I'd almost feel sorry for you. Can you get me some tea?"

Sasuke's hand blurred. The kunai shot towards Naruto.

Naruto looked outside the window.

The kunai had stopped in midair.

"When I went to war with Ame, I prayed." Naruto said. The kunai slowly rotated in midair, until they were facing Sasuke. They started to quiver. "Not to a god. No god ever helped me. Remember, Sasuke, when they saw the tattoos on my stomach and called me a demon?"

Sasuke was still frozen.

"I prayed to Kyuubi." Naruto said. "And he saw the twelve years I'd suffered in his name. Kyuubi exists, you know, Sasuke. He's not as powerful as a god, but gods are never much help, anyway. Demons do things, gods are just icons..." Naruto jerked his head to the side, the kunai clattered onto the ground in a pile. "He gave me gifts, Sasuke. And he made me promise that one day I would use them against those who had tormented me."

Naruto examined his fingernails, ignoring Sasuke's growing rage. "So you have come to kill me." he growled defiantly, taking a fighting stance. "Then fight me, dobe. You might have gotten some help from a demon, but that's just you, isn't it? You'll never get anywhere on your own. And even with Kyuubi's help, you'll never defeat me. I am Sasuke of the Sharingan, the last Uchiha!"

"Still dramatic, I see." Naruto remarked. "I met your brother, by the way. Now, that's a real Uchiha... he told me the truth. Everything about his clan. Why he'd killed them all. And I was so impressed by his valor that I restored the Uchiha, made him head, and his first act as head was to disown you."

"You're spouting nonsense, dead-last." Sasuke taunted. "You're delusional. Now I see. You've learned a few tricks, but you're crazy."

"I did learn a few tricks." Naruto admitted. "But that wasn't what made me Hokage, I'm afraid. That was just hard work."

Sasuke's face went expressionless. He was truly shocked.

His stance went slack. "You're lying." he whispered. "You can't be. The Hokage... the Hokage is..."

"His name is Naruto." said the Fire Country Lord, ticking off his fingers. "He's blonde, has blue eyes, and has a scar on the right side of his face..."

"You're an imposter."

There was a silence. Naruto ran a blade over his fingernails, making a sharp screech in the room. The temperature seemed to decline sharply. "I never took you as such a fool, Sasuke. Arrogant and self-absorbed, of course. But you were never stupid."

There was another silence. Sasuke's eyes were wide.

"I'm not, either." Naruto said, still looking at his fingernails. "And of course I'm not going to kill you, Sasuke. Konoha is in decent shape. Itachi's return hasn't been made public yet, but it will be in a few months. I suggest changing your surname to something else, Itachi won't be pleased when he learns that you've been using his clan name... his _royal_ clan name..."

Something flared in Sasuke's eyes. The Uchiha had never been admitted into noble circles, because their root had been a commoner shinobi. And now...

Naruto continued, in a very soft voice. "Ten years ago, when I returned to the village, I swore that I'd grow powerful one day and return to destroy it..."

He did not miss Sasuke's flinch. "Does that frighten you, Sasuke? Or is it the thought of your own death that terrifies you? Imagine Konoha burning, Sasuke. The children screaming. The smoke muffling their cries and poisoning their lungs. Blood splattering the streets, dripping down the wall. Corpses littering the sidewalk..."

"No."

Sasuke's voice was very small. But there was something in his eyes, something scared but also angry and powerful.

"Done all by one man." Naruto said, still in a soft, gentle voice. "One man, who shall walk away, simply because he is so powerful..."

He watched Sasuke's face.

_"NO!"_

A blade sliced the air, and stopped a bare inch away from Naruto's face. Naruto hadn't moved. The steel rang with the force of its halt.

Naruto smiled, coldly. The blade bent into itself, rolling to the hilt. Sasuke let go of his katana.

"Tch. Ornamental weapons." Naruto said. "Anyway. Well done, Sasuke. I didn't expect it from you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Tell me, do you _love_ this village?"

Sasuke's expression flickered. Naruto read the truth there. The truth was chaos. Sasuke didn't know his own emotions. But Naruto did.

"Fetch me some tea, Sasuke." Naruto said affably. "Let's talk. I want to hear how much my beloved hometown has changed over the years."

Sasuke didn't move. "Are you going to kill us?" he said. His voice had changed. It was... not Sasuke. Not this one, anyway. It echoed from the past, small and scared...

Naruto grinned. "If you must know," he said, "I refused Kyuubi's offer. Jeez, can't you take a joke, teme? One little threat and you piss in your pants... Now, _get me some tea_."

* * *

Really, telling Sasuke he was the Hokage took all the fun out of anything. There was something oddly enjoyable about watching people insult him without really knowing what he could do to them... Sasuke was so stiffly _polite_. He was much more fun when he was incandescent with rage...

Around eight twenty, he exited the office, having enjoyed the tea immensely. He really wanted to see what had become of Iruka...

A small smile crossed his face. There was still a bit of prankster left in his soul.

The illusion left him much shorter. He entered the classroom with the rest of the children, who probably assumed he was new.

Fair hair, sticking up all over the place. Cheerful expression. Blue eyes. Whisker marks. A scar on the left side of his face.

Almost identical, perhaps a little paler than he'd used to be...

Hmm.

He sat near the front. He'd leave after half an hour, maybe, after making some trouble...

Am I being to childish with this? Naruto wondered to himself. I went a bit overboard with Sasuke. I just planned to see how he was doing. And maybe redecorate his office a bit. But when I saw his face... It was so fun to get him all riled up, wasn't it...

And there had been something in him that still wanted to kill the all of them. Raze the village to the ground...

The deal he'd made with Kyuubi? Or something that went much farther back then that?

Iruka walked in. Naruto felt an evil grin split his face, something he hadn't done for a long time. Old Scarface. He didn't look much different. Scar, ponytail, chuunin vest...

"Right." Iruka said, scanning the class. His eyes seemed to skip Naruto. Naruto hadn't even needed to actively use his notice-me-not technique. He doesn't want to remember me. Naruto thought. Goodness, Iruka. You're such a fool. "I hope you've all studied for your tests..."

Groans. Naruto casually leaned back on his chair and placed his feet on his desk, wondering how far he could go before Iruka noticed him.

The papers were handed out. Naruto stared down at the questions...

What utter _crap_. They were still teaching this drivel?

Naruto took out his silver pen and started to write down the answers.

He grew peevish when he reached the last four questions, which were about him.

Describe the three stages of Lord Naruto's attack on the Ame forces.

Write down the day when Lord Naruto abdicated from the seat of Otokage.

Lord Naruto's motto.

The reason why all of the nation wants Lord Naruto on the throne...

My, my, Iruka. Naruto thought. Did you come up with the questions yourself? Surely they don't _teach_ this total bullshit?

He jotted down the right answers and started to doodle on the quiz paper...

He was in the middle of drawing a caricature of a particularly irritating noble at court when Iruka told the students at the back to collect the papers. There were protests.

Half a minute later, Naruto received a random student's paper.

"The answer to question 1..."

He doodled over that one, too.

"This guy's got everything wrong so far." he heard a girl to his far right giggle. "You should look at his answers, they're so funny..."

"He's going to get in trouble with Iruka, though."

"Who is he, anyway?"

"No name."

"Yeah, in real trouble."

"Pfft, look at his answers about the Sandaime Hokage."

"Beards... teehee-"

"_What_ is so funny, Kaoru-san?" Iruka's voice cut crisply across their quiet laughter. "You wouldn't mind calling out answers to question 16 to 20, then."

"Uh." Kaoru stared at the paper in front of her. It was his. "It says 'I don't know the first and second stage, but the third was getting dead drunk in celebration. The day after Lord Naruto decided to. Get the other bastard before he gets you. Because they still needed his face to carve it down on the Monument.'"

Silence.

"It says it here." Kaoru defended herself feebly.

"Whose is it?" Iruka demanded, going red.

"No name, Iruka-sensei."

"I want whoever wrote this to confess. Now."

Naruto stood up. Iruka turned to face him...

And went white.

There was a simple fact. _Iruka did not want to see him_. And there was another fact. Naruto was standing right in front of Iruka...

Naruto grinned widely, something he hadn't done for quite a while...

"Hello, Iruka." he rasped, rather sinisterly. "Remember me?"

Iruka blinked. Something was going on in his mind, something that Naruto was fueling with a mix of plain Know-Thou-Enemy and some chakra... he crumpled onto the ground.

"Oooh." the class chorused.

"Huh." Naruto said, grinning. "I guess those herbs I dumped into his tea finally took effect. You can blame it on me... let's go play hooky!"

There, a day ruined for his ex-teacher. Not enough, but Naruto decided to let go of all his hatred and embrace... harmony and forgiveness...

Ah. Nah.

* * *

After guiding the kids to the small creek a way east from the Academy- and indulging in some guilty fun with the kids, like slipping them up and pretending to help them when they hurt themselves- Naruto slipped away, leaving them to their own devices. Kids, he thought. They think if everyone else is doing it, then it's alright for them, too.

It's okay if everyone else is doing it...

It was nearly noon, by then. Naruto headed downtown, wondering if Ichiraku's was still in business...

It was. It _was_. Naruto found himself grinning- actually _grinning_, funny how he grinned more in Konoha than anywhere else he'd been- no one did ramen right where he lived, now. They added in expensive ingredients and herbs and stirred the soup to precision and served the noodles with the expertise of a samurai trying to street-brawl, but no one could do cheap miso like they serves in the streets. _Cheap_. And good. _Fast_.

He _sat_ down on a stool, and cleared his throat.

"One miso, one shrimp, two pork... eh, make that four miso." he said.

There was silence. The cook craned to see the customer. His daughter Ayame did the same.

"Huh." Ayame said doubtfully. "Are you sure you can eat all that?"

They didn't remember him, after all. Ah, well...

"Watch me." Naruto said, giving her a shark-like grin. He couldn't resist adding; "And give me a lot of those swirly kamaboko thingies. Whaddayacallems."

"Sure."

This was life. He should have done this before- in fact, he had half a mind to take Saturdays off or something so he could spend some time in disguise as a civilian. This was _great_. None of that scraping and bowing and 'Naruto-sama's...

Quite soon, Ayame came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray with a steaming bowl in it. "The rest will come when you prove to me you can eat six more." she said, smiling. "Extra _naruto_, like you asked..." And there it was, a flash of emotion on her face...

Naruto met her eyes straight on. "Very good, Ayame-chan." he said evenly. "So you _do_ remember me."

Ayame blinked. "You're back." she said, stunned.

"And guess what." Naruto said. This was one person he was actually proud to tell of his accomplishments. "I got what I wanted."

Ayame thought for a few moments. And then realization dawned on her face.

"Shush!" Naruto hissed, waving a hand in front of her face. "I'm incognito. Just wanted to see how the village was doing..."

Ayame was quite still. "To just... _see_?" she said warily.

"Hmm." Naruto said, and lowered his voice. "Probably, but if I change my mind, I'll warn you in time..."

Ayame swallowed. "I'll tell dad to make the other six." she said, and hurried back to the kitchen.

Naruto eyed her backside thoughtfully. And shook his head.

He owed too much to Teuchi...

The sun was at its highest peak in the sky when Naruto finished his eleventh bowl.

"Where does it all go?" An awed spectator said, nudging her friend.

"Dunno, his stomach looks the same." The friend tried to look under the table. "Hey, Ku-chan, come her and take a look at his abs..."

Naruto had fantastic hearing, and coincidentally angled his body towards his newly acquired fangirls. His vest fell open a bit...

He could hear squeals.

He brushed back his hair and made a supreme effort to keep his stomach in as he casually swung himself off the chair and stalked off. And as soon as he was out of sight, he used the shunshin to get away.

Funny, this. He felt only contempt for the well-dressed, genteel females at court... yet... he was flirting with these commoners. And was enjoying it.

He found his shunshin had taken him to the bridge a stone's throw from the Memorial Stone. Back in the days when Konoha had been one of the Ninja Villages. Now it still trained ninja, but none of them were very good, and it was becoming more of a civilian city.

Ah. He remembered Hatake Kakashi. He'd known him for a short while before he'd run away. He'd been... _apathetic_... and had treated him like a fool. Back then, he had _been_ a fool, though, before he sat down and thought things over. Back then, he'd tried to escape reality by locking himself up in a happy world...

But the thing was, that world wasn't real. And then he'd realized that he needed to change the outside.

He found his ex-sensei by the Stone. He didn't bother to mask his presence and simply strode towards him, face expressionless.

"Naruto." Kakashi said in a quiet voice, still staring at the monolith, the miniscule kana flowing across it, listing the names of those admirable dead. Naruto guessed, lots of dead friends. Too bad. He should stop obsessing over the... dead... and look to the living. Or at least, food and sex.

"Sasuke told you, then." Naruto said.

"Yes."

Naruto stepped closer, and turned his gaze to the stone as well. His eyes traveled down the length, the names flickering in his mind until he found the one he wanted to know.

"Namikaze Minato." he read aloud, noting the man's frame stiffening. "I wonder if you know, Kakashi." he said.

Kakashi looked at him. His eyes widened slowly.

"No!" he said.

Naruto smiled cruelly. "_Yes_." he paused. "You never _noticed_, you mean? I look remarkably like him, you know... Blonde hair, blue eyes..."

"I never..." Kakashi whispered. "I... never would have _guessed_..."

"A few years after Minato became Hokage," Naruto said, his gentle tone a complete opposite to the smile playing around at the corners of his mouth, "He had an affair with a jounin named Kushina. She gave birth on the same day as the Kyuubi's attack on the capital- I got captured. Kyuubi marked me. Dear father died... and I was shipped back to daddy's hometown by Kushina, who didn't want me to become mixed up with politics. And then... Kushina dies..."

He paused. "You know what happened after that, Kakashi." he said quietly. "You were there."

"But you made it out." Kakashi murmured. "You survived everything... and you ran away, and followed your father's footsteps-"

"Don't say that." Naruto said harshly. "My father had nothing to do with it. What I did was my choice, what I had was my skills. If you let this get out, rest assured I will destroy you- and this village, for a good measure. People believe in me _because_ I'm common, if my heritage gets out they'll start thinking like they did before again. I want to break the blood perception. I want everyone to know that people are people, no different from what they really are because of what their father was or whose son their father was..."

Kakashi was silent. "It's a noble thing, what you're doing..." he said slowly. "Can I say- may I say that I am proud-"

"No, you may not." Naruto said. "I don't believe in that. I don't believe in people's rights to be proud of what other people did."

"You used to believe in a lot of things, back then." Kakashi mused.

"Like Konoha." Naruto snorted. "Back then, I lived in a different world, Kakashi, believe it."

"And then you woke up. And you ran away."

"And it was _better_ than my dream." Naruto grinned- it bore little difference to a snarl.

Kakashi nodded, and faced him for the first time. His mask shifted, slightly. "Who... taught you? You must have learned from a good teacher..." There was a slight hesitation in his voice.

"Orochimaru." Naruto said casually. "Explains a few things, eh?"

A few reddish leaves drifted past on a languid gale. The visible part of Kakashi's face had gone pale.

"Wasn't he the one-" he started.

"Damn good teacher." Naruto murmured, a fingernail flicking out at one of the leaves headed towards his blonde mane. "Rotten human being. I killed him."

Kakashi was silent.

"I don't think I understand what you've grown up to be." he said.

"I do." Naruto said. "But anyway, I wanted to know- what happened to Sakura?"

"She gave up being a shinobi, a few months after you left." Kakashi said simply, shrugging. "Her first C-rank mission went wrong. She didn't have the mentality to face the things we have to face..."

"Where is she now?"

Kakashi gave him a look. "What do you plan on doing?"

"If you don't like what I say, are you going to stop me?" Naruto said, showing his teeth in a way that could be very loosely called a grin.

"I have the obligation to try." Kakashi said.

"So be it, then." Naruto said, disgusted with his former teacher's idiocy. "I just want to see how she's doing. I probably won't even talk to her. It's closure, for me. Letting go of the last things..."

"Like with Sasuke?" Kakashi said witheringly.

Naruto considering pulling out the Hokage card, but decided that it would be petty. Instead, he gave Kakashi a hard, cold stare. "I made my peace with him, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes." Kakashi muttered, not meeting his glare. "I'll take you word for it. Sakura lives a small distance east to the Academy. She usually goes shopping about now every Monday and Thursday."

Kakashi put his hands into his pockets, hunching his shoulders a bit. Naruto looked at him, and down at the Memorial Stone again.

He left.

* * *

He went into a cafe and ordered coffee and cake. With great poise, he dug into his food while watching outside the window, safe from the summer heat.

Pink hair, pink hair...

Ah. Two pink heads, in fact. So Sakura had married.

He watched Sakura walk into a supermarket with a child, perhaps four or five years old, toddling besides her. Her pink hair was tied in a bun at the base of her neck. Naruto finished his cake in an unhurried pace and then left, tailing his old crush.

She mused over cans...

Put her child in a cart, and wandered a few meters away to examine the fish.

Sakura the housewife. Naruto stepped up to the child, who interested him more than Sakura. She wore her pink hair in pigtails and had her mother's light green eyes, like emeralds... Sakura hadn't been unattractive, but Naruto held her in contempt. She had no _strength_.

"What's your name, kid?" he murmured to the child.

"Akiko." she answered proudly. "I'm thwee yearth old."

"Are you." Naruto said. "What's your daddy's name?"

Solemn green eyes stared into his. "Mommy thayth I thyouldn't talk to thtrangers." she said.

Naruto glared. "You _will_ desist lisping when I talk to you." he said. "You're old enough to prounounce 'sissy', aren't you?"

Akiko swelled with anger. "Sissy." she said, pouting.

"Well _done_." Naruto said sarcastically. "So, Daddy's name? Or can't you pronounce that?"

She told him, enunciating clearly. It wasn't a name Naruto recognized.

"Does he get along well with your mommy?" Naruto couldn't help asking.

"Yethsth."

"Tch." Naruto said. "I feel sorry for the poor man. Does she still scream like a banshee when something upsets her?"

Akiko's pink eyebrows drew together in anger-

"Hey! Step away from my child, right now! I should warn you that I trained as a shinobi when I was younger and I remember quite a bit, too!"

Sakura stood behind him. Naruto turned around, and couldn't help releasing a bit of killing intent. Sakura's defiance drained away, and she started to shudder.

"You quit in a few months." Naruto said quietly. "And even then, you were the weakest one of all. Always depending on other people to get you through..."

Akiko started to cry from behind him. Naruto paid her no mind, still staring at the trembling Sakura.

"You were always foolish." Naruto said derisively, and started to walk away. As he passed her, he felt Sakura flinch...

He smiled a bit as he stepped out. For Lord Naruto, this was almost a shaming display of power over the weak. But today, he was not Lord Naruto...

He felt at peace. He'd take a look around Konoha. And then he'd leave. And then he'd become what he'd sought to become again...

A dream that had changed with him...

* * *

Naruto sprawled idly, shifting to get comfortable on the bumpy stone beneath him. He was lying on the bridge, basking in the little light left. He had watched the sunset here when he was younger- mostly when he had wanted to avoid people in general. Recover from life. He'd slept out here a lot, too, hunched beneath the bridge- right under the very end of it, where there was a brief stretch of ground- which offered a protection when it rained. There was a certain nostalgia in remembering the old misery.

Quite a far call from the place he slept now. Eiderdown. With swan feathers. It was ridiculous… ridiculously soft. And comfortable. And the blankets….

There were benefits in living like that when one's origins started somewhere where you have to line up for the gutters. It was so comfortable in comparison. People who'd grown up like that, in the other hand… how did they live with it?

Naruto swore to himself that if he ever had a child, he'd send him to the streets for a proper education. That's where you learned the real stuff, like 'kicking the other guy in the balls before he kicked you' or 'dark alleys aren't the best places for ambushes, because chances are that the only people who're going to come in are people like you; i.e. Wanted'.

And… another education in a proper school, of course. One where the kid wouldn't be ostracized. Or worshiped, either, come to think of that, look what had happened to Uchiha Sasuke. That absolute _snob_.

Shutaru indeed. Naruto snorted…..

It was almost sunset when he heard pounding footsteps behind him. A kunai spun from his pocket and snapped towards the person. Naruto didn't look around.

"Please, don't disturb." he said apathetically. "I'm trying to enjoy the scenery, here..."

"I- I apologize, Na- Naruto-sama..."

"Good heavens, did Sasuke tell _everyone_?" Naruto growled, keeping his eyes on the sun. "I wanted _incognito_!"

"N-no, Naruto-sama." the intruder stammered. A girl, soft, breathy. Cute. "Sasuke-san mentioned that his old teammate had come to see him... I knew it was you..."

"You must have a good memory, then." Naruto said. "That was ten years ago. And how the hell did you know that I was Hokage?"

There was a silence. The sun kissed the ragged horizon... Naruto watched from his seat on the stone bridge, waiting lazily for an answer.

"It was your dream, Naruto-sama."

"Chalk that out, you have a _fantastic_ memory." Naruto said, astonished enough to twist around to see who he was talking to. He didn't know her. Or did he? "Either that, or you're lying."

Memories nudged his consciousness. Naruto blinked. Her eyes...

"Hyuuga." he said aloud. "Hyuuga... Hinata."

That was right. The girl blushed.

She might be trying to seduce you. Naruto thought to himself. God knows I've had enough of girls trying to suck up to me. But oddly...

He reached out with his senses, placing a foot on the ground delicately. "How do you remember that?"

She blushed even harder. There was a hitai-ate on her forehead, Naruto noted. Another memory surfaced, from the bottom of an ocean that was ten years deep. She'd used to wear it on her throat.

And she was Hyuuga. A more recent memory surfaced...

"I thought..."

"Because..."

They stopped.

"You go first, Naruto-sama."

Naruto nodded. "Weren't you Main House?" he said. "Hiashi-san's daughter?"

"My younger sister Hanabi was made the Head of our clan." Hinata answered, looking wretched.

"Answer my other question now." Naruto said, turning back towards the sun. "And come sit next to me, I dislike talking to people not in my range of vision."

Footsteps, gently on the dirt. Someone gently sitting down next to him. And unexpected silence.

"I used to have a crush on you, Naruto-sama."

That was... an enormous surprise.

"You _did_." Naruto said in a hard voice. "I find that hard to believe, frankly. Do you remember what I was? A _demon_. A _pariah_. A _fool_. And you were, back then, the Hyuuga heiress..."

Hinata went stiff besides him.

"You're a parasite." Naruto said. And looked straight into Hinata's eyes. Pearly, he thought. But in this light... pale gold.

Her face was quite unreadable. It was the right word. No one could possibly... really feel what he was seeing on Hinata's face now, hurt and betrayal bared for all the world to see.

Naruto touched her neck with two fingers, ignoring her violent flinch. "Tell me." he said, in a much kinder tone. "How do you remember me, _really_?"

"I was telling the truth!" Naruto had a feeling that Hinata would have been shouting if she'd been anyone else. Instead, it was just a choked whisper. "I..."

Naruto blinked. Pulse... normal. But he couldn't believe it. In this damned village... someone had cared for him.

"Why?" he chose, out of all the scores of questions running through his mind. "What could you have possibly seen in me?"

"Courage." Hinata said instantly, and finally the tears fell. She bowed her head, shoulders hunched. "You never gave up. Not even when they all told you that you were..."

Naruto threw back his head and _laughed_. "Gods, Hinata." he said, choking with the pure ridiculousness of the situation. "They were right, you know. I was trash. I was a loser, an idiot, a dead-last-"

"No you aren't!" Hinata said, turning her head towards him so fast that her long hair lashed around her face like whips. "You-"

"No I'm not." Naruto agreed, cutting her off. "I saw I _was_. Now... I'm not."

"You never were, either." Hinata argued, and Naruto noticed that she was still crying. Silly girl, he thought. Does she have to? "You stood up to all of them. You never bowed down. I never forgot you! E-everytime anyone said something degrading to me or tried to take me down, I remembered you..."

She trailed off, and angrily brushed off the tears on her face.

"Remember me and _what_?" Naruto said. "What did you do, Hinata? What good did I ever do for you?"

"You gave me courage-"

"Courage never did anyone good."

"How did you become the Hokage, then?" Hinata ranted. Naruto noted with interest that she lost her stutter when she was angry. Very good, he'd have to keep her in a rage. "I know it was because you were brave and determined and driven! You always promised to become Hokage, and you said it was your way to always keep your promises! I always-"

Naruto held up a finger. She shushed. "One little point there, Hinata." he said derisively. "The boy that said all that? Wanted to become Hokage because he wanted to be acknowledge, promised to be honorable because it was his 'way'- I'm not that boy."

Hinata's Byakugan activated. Naruto watched the veins around her eyes bulge to life- ley lines trailing around her blood limit, carrying surging chakra to the pearl colored irises.

Some found the Hyuuga's Byakugan unattractive to look at- the half-visible, very pale pupils and the veins put them off.

Naruto smirked, and leaned forward to kiss the girl.

And incredibly enough, she kissed back.

Uncharacteristically, Naruto found himself thinking the moment romantic- and immediately dismissed that thought...

He pulled back first. Her cheeks were glowing, and a hand rose to touch her lips as she couldn't believe what had just transpired. "Y-you-" she stuttered.

"Do get angry again." Naruto said pleasantly. "You're very attractive then."

"You _kissed_ me." Hinata said, her Byakugan fading from pure shock. "_You_ kissed me. You kissed _me_..."

"Oh, come on." Naruto said, waving a hand dismissively, leaning back on the bridge. Since it was curved, it meant that he was nearly horizontal. "I could do more than that, if you want."

Wide eyes stared at Naruto. Their sheen was reddish now.

Dang, he'd missed the sunset!

"Blast you, girl." Naruto sighed, flopping back. He stared up at the darkening sky from an odd angle. "And I was really sinking into a puddle of nostalgia here..."

Silence. Hinata's face color seemed to recover as she twiddled her thumbs and looked determinedly at everything but Naruto.

"Naruto-sama." she said, very slowly. Naruto realized that she must be trying not to stutter.

"Call me Naruto." he said, turning his face to stare at the water, glinting navy blue and red and just that odd white in the water that always turns up, even in the darkest of nights. "It gets old, 'Naruto-sama'..."

He hadn't meant to sound sad. It had just come out that way.

"Ah-" Hinata said, faltering a bit before pulling herself together. "Naruto, then... may I say that- I don't think you've changed that much at all."

Naruto snorted, and pulled himself up, falling on purpose halfway up before he was too lazy to get up all the way. He hung upside down from the bridge, the tips of his blonde hair trailing in the languid stream. "Really. What makes you say that?"

"When I said that you were determined and brave... I wasn't talking about the boy you pretended to be, Naruto... san."

Naruto sneered at the upside-down glow of the dead sun's last rays. "So you're saying you saw through the whole idiot charade? Feh."

"I'm telling the truth..."

A shadow clone swam out of the water from behind her and pressed a dripping hand against the back of her neck. "Say that again." the real Naruto said, still upside down.

"I saw through the front you put up." Hinata said clearly. "I knew you weren't stupid, you weren't always happy, that you never thought about giving up. But you didn't give up, Naruto-kun."

"But I did give up on my dream." Naruto said. "I just got another one."

"You wanted to be a Hokage, didn't you?"

"To tell the truth... Not really." Naruto said, grinning. He swung himself up again. "My original dream was to smash this village to the ground. Now, I'm much more mature and kind-hearted, it's just making the world a better place."

He could see Hinata's frown, and saw that her Byakugan was activated again.

"Odd." she said. "I can't tell if you're lying or telling the truth. The signals all... all tangled..."

"I'm a good liar." Naruto said smugly.

She looked like she was going to say something, but paused. Naruto's kage bunshin hauled himself out of the water and landed behind Hinata, pulling at her gently so that she was leaning against him. She gave a small yelp of surprised, and raised her hands to resist when the clone gently loosened the knot of her forehead protector...

The hitai-ate bounced off the stone and fell into the water; the clone slipped into the water again to retrieve it. Naruto's eyes were riveted to the seal on her forehead, a green saltire with horizontal lines on either sides. He leaned closer, paying no attention to her flushed face...

"Huh." he said professionally, hands casually placed on her knees. "Good piece of work, this. Rather simplistic, though. With enough skill and power, it should be broken..."

He sat back. Hinata's eyes were a sort of gray in _this_ light. The color changes were fascinating, he had a sudden urge to take her to an aquarium and see how her eyes looked then. And then a forest, maybe. And in front of a fireplace?

"The Caged Bird Seal is very... _old_..." Hinata managed. "Many Branch family members have tried to escape from its hold- and none of them have ever succeeded..."

"Have they." Naruto said drolly. "Were any of them master sealers?"

Hinata blinked at Naruto. "And you..."

"My dad's old teacher taught me." Naruto said. The sun had set completely, but Hinata's eyes were still silvery. Interesting, they were even _brighter_ in the darkness. Like a random romantic metaphor. "Are you understanding me?"

"The Hyuuga would expel me..."

"That's the point."

Hinata was visibly stunned.

"You're asking me to..." she whispered. "Leave?"

"Obviously I'll give you time to think about it." Naruto said, rolling off the bride and landing acrobatically on his feet. "I'll be in the old inn downtown- what do they call it now? It used to be the Goose's Armpit ten years ago..."

"It's the Phoenix's Tail now, Naruto-san..."

"Is it? How times have changed. If you want to take me up on my offer, I'll be there. I leave tomorrow at dawn, so you'll have to decide by then. Don't worry about waking me up if it's late." Naruto smirked. "Really."

"I-" Hinata started, but Naruto was already gone... "I..."

She stared at the dark waters. If she went back home, she'd just be scolded. Sent to do a few chores, maybe. Life would pass. Her father would die one day, Hanabi would take the place and the Hyuuga would continue.

If she left...

Naruto had promised that he could break her seal...

Her seal had been activated once. It was enough.

All the Main family had the ability to activate her seal. Hinata knew of a few Branch members whose seals had been activated by a Main in a fit of temper...

She really had nothing left here. A few people she was vaguely attached to...

Naruto had become a fading memory in her mind. Fading, and yet always pulled back into the forefronts of her consciousness right before it disappeared. She never forgot. Even years later, even when her memory of him was that of a blonde kid grinning with cocky confidence... she'd remembered his _spirit_. And she'd often wondered what had become of him.

When she'd seen the pictures of him, she'd known. And had felt glad for him, very much so. A bit envious.

She had been sure he hadn't remembered her...

What had made him want to take her along?

Hinata spent another hour listlessly staring at the stream, trying not to think. Trying to block out the confusion.

And... suddenly, her thoughts clicked together, like two planets clinking towards each other in slow-motion. She found her decision in their ashes.

She stood up, and started to run at a furious pace towards the Phoenix's Tail.

* * *

Naruto was in the shower when she came through the door, sweating and out of breath. "Naruto-san!" she called out, feeling more sure of herself than any other time in her life. "I want to accept your offer-"

"Yeah, I knew you'd come." a voice echoed from the bathroom. "Thought I'd leave you to make your own decision, though. Care to join me?"

* * *

Hinata walked besides Naruto, a small pack slung across her shoulders. A few things that her once belonged to her mother. Her favorite jacket, one that was too hot for the summer- but Hinata was determined to wear it when it was cool enough.

"It'll take around four hours to the capital without ninja speed." Naruto was saying. "The weather's good today, it'll be a nice walk."

"Yes, Naruto-sa- kun," she amended at Naruto's heavy look. "Are you sure that I can keep addressing you like that in your- palace... place?"

Naruto snorted. "Ridiculous little castle. I like the gardens better; they have some really fantastic gardens..."

But they lapsed into silence. Naruto raised an eyebrow at Hinata. "Are you being awkward about last night?"

"Uhh." Hinata said, going slightly pink again, but there was a sleepy sort of smile on her face. "No. I was just wondering why you're doing this for me..."

Naruto blinked. "And please be honest." Hinata added.

Naruto's face went slightly wooden- Hinata looked at him anxiously. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to-" she said.

"No, no, I'm just trying to phrase..." Naruto said. "It's because you didn't hate me, of course."

"That's it?"

"That came out funny." Naruto said, sighing. "It's something like... well, look at it like this. I left Konoha because I thought everyone hated me. Now it turns out that you didn't. I feel funny about the whole situation now, so I decided to solve the whole thing by taking you with me?"

Hinata stared at him, puzzled.

Naruto smiled broadly. "Actually, that's not the truth. Completely wrong, in fact. But it's easier to think of it that way, isn't it? The real reason is kind of... _weird_."

**End**

* * *

AN: You know, it was a nice enough idea in my head when I came up with it, but when I tried to write it... my inexperience with writing romance shows, doesn't it?

The life of this story will be something like 'Posted. Flamed by the people with sense. Deleted.'


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